David Haye turns his attention to Vitali Klitschko with Wladimir fight off

David Haye has switched his attention to the elder of the Klitschko brothers,
Vitali, the World Boxing Council champion, after ruling himself out of the
three-belt world heavyweight title challenge against Wladimir scheduled for
June 20 with a back injury.

Oh brother: David Haye will now hope to fight Vitali Klitschko after his fight with Wladimir, left, was called offPhoto: AP

By Gareth A Davies

5:52PM BST 07 Jun 2009

Adam Booth, Haye's trainer, has suggested that his charge may now meet Vitali Klitschko in September, with Wladimir changing opponents to world ranked No 3 heavyweight Ruslan Chagaev in 12 days' time.

Bernt Bonte, manager of the Klitschko brothers, has also suggested the door will be left ajar for Haye to fight Wladimir next year.

Wladimir is scheduled to fight IBF mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin in September, and Alexander Dimitrenko in the New Year, which could leave Haye frozen out of contention with the younger Klitschko until next Easter.

"We've spoken about Vitali in September," said Booth. "Fighting Vitali is just something that was thrown up with a few other things, but we've not directly talked to them about it. We were only asking for a three-week delay and Wladimir is either impatient or it's an indication of his desire about really wanting to fight David."